The Dork Side: Shut up about the Netflix price hike, you whiny crybabies

Critics of the Netflix price hike have forgotten how good they've got it

I can’t believe all these people are complaining about the Netflix price hike.

Seriously? You’re losing your damn minds about $6. $6?! Meanwhile, the Republicans are stripping all of us of our health care. Try going to a Planned Parenthood in New Hampshire. Oh wait, you can’t. There still isn’t equal rights in this country for the gays, but yeah, this Netflix thing is a big deal – let’s all freak out.

Come on, people, you can’t get everything for free. You get Google for free. You get Facebook for free. You get Twitter for free. You get YouTube for free. You get Hulu for free. You get hours and hours of entertainment for free. How are companies supposed to stay in business if you are unwilling to pay anything for their services?

You were paying – what – $10 a month for rentals and streaming at Netflix. Now, you will pay about $7.99 for one plan or $15.98 for both per month.

That’s just a little less than what ONE MOVIE in theater will cost you. That’s cheaper than any cable package. Hell, I used to pay more than that in late fees when I rented from a video store back in the day. (Who’s laughing now, Hollywood Video?!)

I’m sorry if you can’t get unlimited streaming movies and movie rentals for next to nothing anymore, you big babies.

Sure, maybe Netflix went about revealing its price hike all wrong. If they had said, “We’re raising prices, but you are going to get more streaming movies and better service,” that might have lessened the angry backlash they’re receiving. Or, maybe people are just whiners who like to bitch about everything. Considering what you get, I think $15.98 is a bargain! Trust me, the people who are complaining the loudest about the $15.98 spend more than that on crap like McDonald’s, Starbucks, Axe Body Spray, etc.

According to various online polls, approximately 41 percent of Netflix users are threatening to cancel.

So, they are not only whiny crybabies but they are liars, too. They aren’t going anywhere. And if they do, well, so long, suckers! Amazon and Hulu don’t have near the streaming selection Netflix does. And have fun at Blockbuster or using Redbox or wherever it is that whiny crybabies go to rent movies. I’ll be at home watching my streaming movies and TV show marathons while you are looking for parking and hoping that your movie isn’t rented out. And hey, don’t forget to get that movie back on time, dum dum.

I think you’ve forgotten how good we’ve got it with Netflix. There’s a reason you joined Netflix and stopped going to Blockbuster or Hollywood Video in the first place. Is a $6 price increase really that big of a deal? I don’t want to be a callous jerk, but if $6 is that big of a deal to you, then I suspect Netflix raising prices isn’t your biggest problem.

Comments:

Only a**holes resort to speaking in percentages when they realize that $6 isn’t a lot of cash. If my pack of gum goes up 60 percent, then it’s still just a dollar. Now if my health insurance goes up 60 percent, I’ll get riled up.

How about realizing why it’s going up, and that the movie companies, that are already hassling netflix with the delays on new releases, are about to start charging Netflix way more than 60% to carry their material. Fight the real enemy, the greedy studios that think adding 3d on to the Chipmunks means we should pay 25% more to see it.

From CNN: Netflix is likely in search of additional revenue to offset the growing bandwidth and infrastructure costs, analysts say.

Until now, customers have been getting streaming services at a bargain, said Robert Levitan, the CEO of Pando Networks, a firm that provides streaming software to gaming companies and previously to NBC Universal.

“Consumers have an unlimited appetite for consuming streaming right now,” Levitan said. “We all tend to think, as consumers, that we just click ‘play,’ and it comes down. We don’t realize the physical and financial costs of serving that data.”

I will not cry, yell or go on a rant, Netflix is not offering a service worth 15 dollars. Therefore I will not pay 15 dollars and I WILL cancel my membership. It’s the same as anything else if something is worth what they are charging then I will pay it, if not I wont.

This article is laughably stupid. While making ridiculous and completely unrelated claims about those evil Republicans, it utterly misses the point. I just canceled my Netflix account–and it had nothing to do with $6. I can afford $6 more a month, but what I can’t afford is the arrogance of Netflix, sending out a glowing email about how this is going to benefit the customer as if their customers were too stupid to do the math–and then giving an interview calling their upset customers “a small subset” who need to give up a “latte or two”. Insulting arrogance like that does not deserve my money, whether it’s $6 or $6000.

See, here’s the thing. If Netflix had said, “We don’t want to do this, but we need to raise prices in order to increase bandwidth and acquire more content. By the way, here are all the great programs we’re going to add as a result…” I would have kept my service in a second. In fact, I would have been willing to pay much more than $16.

But that’s not what they did. They sent out a bullshit email about how great and glorious this decision was, completely ignoring the fact that this was actually a huge price increase and completely omitting any mention of new content.

Sonia, you need to understand that all of the outrage has nothing to do with the money. It’s all about respect.

Neflix seems to ignore the big gate that is slowly closing on bandwidth consumption for individual account users. Also pretty ignorant of the MPAA deadlock on good titles getting to streaming service.

They also failed to estimate the retention problem in response to their fee increase. How do you generate money with a fee increase if it results in droves of account cancellations?

BTW-the gay thing is about qualifying as a special class. For the sake of criminalizing bashing & violence it sounds easy but it begins a whole list of reparative benefits which currently outweigh the demonstrated need to be so identified in law.

ASC, “the gay thing” is not about being a special class. They are asking for the same rights that straight people have. They want to get married and have the same rights and protections that straight people have, because — news flash — they are human beings.

Let’s see now… 1/3 cut in pay. I don’t get food stamps or an ebt card. I don’t get section 8 housing. I’m not an illeage alien so I have to get things on my own. My gas expense to get to a job has gone up about 35%. I’m in the car about 12-15hrs aweek. Food costs have risen. I leave the house at 5:30 am and get home at 8pm. When the F__K do i have time to worry about nexflix pricing? Nice service, but a radio is still free.

Thank you for writing this article and taking the other side. I’ve used Netflix for years, and while I’m not happy that the combo price plan went away, they are still easily the best option on the market, whether it’s streaming service (have you people tried the other streaming services?!!) or the DVD rentals. I’m not going anywhere because all the other options are worse. I’m hoping that by separating the two packages, Netflix’s streaming content will improve even more. That’s my guess. So so long all you people pretending you’re leaving. You’ll be back once you look at the landscape. But in the meantime, stop your crying. And now that you might actually have to get off your couch and go rent a DVD from a machine, try not to buy any extra candy or soda. My guess is you don’t need it.

Did netflix pay you to write this article? Smug attitude just like Netflix marketing team. You don’t get it. It’s not about the $6. It’s about their disprespect for their loyal customer base who have grown them to the point where they took out the competition and now rewarded with price increases. Your writing style makes you sound like an ignoramus.

Whining about not getting respect from a company makes you sound like an ignoramus.

Netflix offers us a service that is pretty damn cool. I would much rather pay a few bucks more for it than watch the company become unprofitable OR, worse, the service get horrible because they didn’t have the money to increase their bandwidth.

Sure, it would be nice if Netflix had handled things differently, but all this anger is seriously misdirected. All these people on Twitter and Facebook and commenting on the Netflix blog comparing this minor price hike to rape and comparing Netflix to Casey Anthony need to get some perspective.

I’ve read your comments Sonia and I have to say you sound like an incredibly bitter individual. What do you care how other people feel about price increases to services? I mean really how does it truly affect your life?

Don, I’m actually the happiest person you’ll ever meet. Honestly, the Netflix price hike doesn’t affect my life. I’ll happily pay the $6 and move on. I’m an adult that realizes that sometimes companies raise their prices. That’s the way it is. However, I’ve had to listen to people complain, and read their tweets and Facebook statuses about it. These are people with absolutely no perspective on life.

Your incessant insistence that everyone is a cry baby and you are an adult reeks of epic immaturity and I seriously doubt that you are the happiest person “ever”. Truly happy people don’t usually have a conflict craving personality. if your writing reflected any more anger, we could call you Red Sonia. Lighten up on people a little baby screwy. Your banter reminds me of my 6th grade school yard.

What a bunch of moronic f****. I guess someone prefer like taking it up the a**, its a 60% increase. If you get a 60% increase on a $300 payment I bet you would have something to say then huh? Besides that they have no true reason for the price hike besides to say hahaha we are greedy bastards. There are however rumors its due to pressure among the movie corporations. Now also with that said I have a 3 DVD plan with netflix and with the price hike my price will raise to $27 something. If you go through blockbuster and do the 3 out plan they have you pay $19.99 granted you will not get streaming included in that. Now go get streaming from elsewhere and you will pay around the same for the price hike although with blockbuster you wil also have the option to add games so therefore if you have gamefly you can do away with that and save there. Also you won’t have to wait 28 days after the release of a movie by going through blockbuster. You do the math.

One quick last note, Blockbuster does have movies by mail like netflix so no you won’t have to go to the store unless you want to do a quick exhange then you have that option. BTW acording to the poll I saw out of 69,000+ voters 79% will be leaving not sure where you got 41%.

41% was the number of several polls, including CNet, I saw Wednesday when this post was written. Polls are on different sites are going to have different numbers, and the numbers are going to change over time. I’m going to go into this post and change the poll numbers every day.

And anyone who talks about the Netflix disrespecting them and then talks about switching to Blockbuster … well, good luck. Talk about disrespect, including late charges and secret censorship of movies. No thanks. I’ll stick with Netflix.

I know all about blockbuster’s past lawsuits and etc. You do know they were bought out right? Also my poll information came from msn on the article they had a poll attached. I rather take my chances elsewhere then take it up the ass from a 60% price hike on the matter of principal especialy when I can get a better deal elsewhere.

I work in Netflix Customer Service. You have no idea what it’s like talking to these people for ten hours a day. You’d think we killed their dog or something.

Netflix customers who call to complain about this thing: seriously, you guys are being insufferable about this, and there’s nothing anyone you can possibly get on the phone is able to do to save you your precious six dollars.

Now, I’m not saying we never want to talk to you. Please, call us if you have actual problems with the Netflix service; we can almost certainly help you, and we’re generally happy to. But don’t call about this just to complain. We know that people are unhappy. This is not news to us. If you want to close your account, be a 21st century adult and close it on the website. You can do it at netflix.com/SubscriptionCancel. Fill out the little survey if you want to let us know why you’re doing it. Just don’t call about it. All you’re doing is wasting your time and the time of the person you’re speaking to.

Sonia: for saying all the things I wish I could, I love you. Please marry me and let me have a million of your babies.

Thank you, Vic, for your comment. I’m sad to report to you that I’m already married and currently 7 months into popping out a spawn on my quest to have a million babies.

You can depend on me to raise a rational human being who doesn’t lose his mind when a movie rental company raises its prices.

Maybe I can teach him to vent that anger toward the people and companies that deserve it such as government officials who give tax breaks to the rich and bleed the middle class and poor, and oil companies that hike up gas prices while polluting our oceans.

As some who worked in movies theaters for years, I know how difficult it can be to deal with angry customers, especially ones that you are powerless to help. I don’t know how many times a customer yelled at me because movie ticket prices are so high, but as someone who was just working behind the candy counter I didn’t have any say in ticket prices.

What people are teed off about is that out of nowhere there is this 60% increase. That’s a tough pill to swallow for a lot of people who cancelled their cable to be a Netflix subscriber. Granted, the price is still pretty low, but there was a better way to go about saying, hey people, we’re raising the rate by 60%. If they said, we will guarantee you all the best new movies on Netflix play, that could have solved a lot of the customer complaint issues. If people don’t create a fuss over the price increase NOW, then Netflix will think it’s okay to jack the price up more on customers in the future. Understand why people are complaining now?

I almost can’t take you seriously when you present you’re opinion like that. You had spot-on points throughout your whole article and then at the end, “You sound like an ***hole.” I mean come on, stop being such a hypocrite. Sure, people are over exaggerating about the price hike, but people like me are disappointed at the fact that Netflix isn’t offering anything MORE after a 60% hike. This article could’ve been more than adequate if you didn’t focus so much on you’re attitude, rather than the persuasion.

I’m not being a hypocrite. I’d be a hypocrite if I started bitching about some other business’ $6 price hike.

I wrote this the post in an outrageous tone to match the outrageous overreacting. Whether you like the tone of the post or not doesn’t change the fact all these people are overreacting to a pretty modest price increase.

I did not realize Netflix was so cheap compared to cable. Time Warner Cable raises their rates several times a year and the movie channels are really expensive. We will check out Netflix to see if we can save money. I think a lot of people are frustrated with this economy because everything keeps going up except our pay checks.